CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — Wildwood High School sophomore Macie McCracken repeated as the individual champion at Thursday’s Cape May County Cross Country Championship at Cape May County Park and Zoo, but Ocean City’s team took the next six spots to win the team title with ease.
McCracken was well ahead of the field — a position she prefers from the outset — finishing more than 40 seconds ahead of everyone else. Her time was 18:45.73.
From there it was all Ocean City.
Red Raider sophomore Maeve Smith was second in a time of 19:26.89, followed by fellow sophomore Chloe Care in 19:54.48. Senior Olivia Palmieri was fourth in 20:14.3 and junior Frankie Ritzel was fifth in 20:17.85. Senior Grace McAfee took the final scoring spot for Ocean City (only the top five runners count in the scoring), finishing sixth in 20:25.74.
Ocean City’s other two runners, freshman Gabrielle Henry (20:59.85) and senior Abby Inserra (21:17.17), finished seventh and ninth overall.
Wildwood sophomore Leiah Pawlus was the only runner to break up the Ocean City pack. She was eighth in 21:14.8 and Middle Township senior Sofia Jurist was 10th in 21:25.7.
As a team, Ocean City finished with 20 points. Middle Township was second with 70, Wildwood third with 75, Lower Cape May Regional fourth with 95 and Cape May County Tech fifth with 120.
McCracken said she was happy that she won.
“I always like to run from the lead. I’m strong in the beginning, obviously. I don’t really have a sprint so I try to get ahead in the beginning,” she said, putting distance on her competitors.
She noted the team has a new coach this year who has the girls doing more speed workouts. She said that really hasn’t helped with her kick at the end but is helping with her speed during the race.
She is looking forward to the sectional meet this weekend.
“Last year I got second, so hopefully I’ll be around there again, and obviously I want to make it to states.”
Smith was feeling good as well after leading the Red Raiders to the team championship, setting a personal record (PR) time along the way.
“It was a fast course and I really liked it,” Smith said. “I made sure not to start out too quick and I saved myself for the last mile. I was really excited (to come in second).”
The combination of the PR and team title was especially important to her.
“I was really proud of myself,” she said. The overall championship “makes me even more proud because it’s the whole team together accomplishing something.”
She is impressed with the strength of the team’s pack.
“We have a lot of girls who stay in a group, so it’s great to win titles together,” she said.
Looking ahead to the Cape-Atlantic League meet, that was Tuesday after the Sentinel sports section went to press, and the South Jersey sectional meet Saturday at Gloucester County Dream Park in Logan Township, Smith said she believes her team will “do pretty well because we’ve been staying together the whole season and I think we’ll have strong competitions.”
Facing Mainland again at the CAL meet
The Red Raiders were running in the Cape-Atlantic League Cross Country Championship on Tuesday afternoon. Among the other teams, the Ocean City girls were up against their cross-bay rivals, Mainland Regional.
The Red Raiders beat the Mustangs 27-32 when they met earlier this month in Ocean City.
Mainland’s Sofia Day and Gillian Lovett finished 1-2 in that dual meet and the duo just finished 1-2 again at the Atlantic County Cross Country Championship on Thursday at Stockton University, with Day repeating her win from last year as a freshman.
The Mainland girls won the Atlantic County team title with 29 points in the field of eight teams. Egg Harbor Township was second with 41 points and Cedar Creek third with 87.
Mustang Claudia Booth was fifth, teammate Chloe Malone was ninth and Ava McDole was 12th. Day’s winning time was 18:17.15.
Strong season for OCHS girls
Ocean City coach Tim Cook said his girls were excited to go undefeated in dual meets this season, finishing 9-0.
“It was one of the goals at the start of the season to carry the tradition we had in the past. It’s nice to keep the ball rolling,” he said. “They’re happy to see their hard work (pay off). Now it’s on to championship season.”
Cook noted the Cape May County Championship is a smaller meet, “but it’s good to represent the area and compete against area athletes. There are good athletes from every school. It’s good to come together. We don’t really see a lot of these other teams much of the year. The girls know each other running against each other. I always have fun here and I think the girls do, too. There’s a lot of camaraderie.”
It’s a busy championship season with the county meet last Friday, the CAL meet Tuesday and the sectional meet this coming Saturday.
“Knowing there are three races in 10 days, they’re starting to hone in and mentally prepare,” Cook said of his runners. “I think they’re stepping up. They’ve been running well all season and now it’s next gear, next gear.
“I think we’re pretty well prepared. We’re taking it one meet at a time, Cape May County first, CAL next, then sectionals. They’re funny,” he said of his girls. “They don’t like me to talk too much ahead of time, but I’m always thinking three steps ahead. They like to take it one meet at a time.
“They’re excited to add on to what they already did.”
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff